Vox Humana (Daniel Amos album)

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Vox Humana
VoxHumanaAlbum.jpg
Studio album by Daniel Amos
Released 1984
Recorded 3-D Studios
(Costa Mesa, California)
Genre New Wave, Christian alternative rock
Label Refuge Records
Producer Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos chronology
Doppelgänger
(1983) Doppelgänger1983		Vox Humana
(1984)		 Fearful Symmetry
(1986) Fearful Symmetry1986
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Vox Humana is the sixth studio album by Christian alternative rock band Daniel Amos, released on Refuge Records in 1984. It is the third album in their ¡Alarma! Chronicles album cycle.

Christian alternative rock is a form of alternative rock music that is lyrically grounded in a Christian worldview. Some critics have suggested that unlike CCM and older Christian rock, Christian alternative rock generally emphasizes musical style over lyrical content as a defining genre characteristic, though the degree to which the faith appears in the music varies from artist to artist.

Daniel Amos American Christian rock band

Daniel Amos is an American Christian rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. The band currently consists of Taylor, guitarist Greg Flesch and drummer Ed McTaggart. Over the band's career, they have included keyboardist Mark Cook, drummer Alex MacDougall, bassist Tim Chandler and keyboardist Rob Watson with sounds that experimented with country rock, rock, new wave and alternative rock.

Refuge Records was a contemporary Christian music record label founded in 1980 by Greg Nelson, Jack Hafer and Ray Nenow.

Contents

Background

Vox Humana was a much brighter album than its predecessor, Doppelgänger , and included catchy, synthesizer-driven pop songs with lyrics about technology's role in American culture. "Travelog" was a song about a television-obsessed man "basking in the blue light".

<i>Doppelgänger</i> (Daniel Amos album) 1983 studio album by Daniel Amos

Doppelgänger is the fifth studio album by Christian alternative rock band Daniel Amos issued on their own Alarma! Records label in 1983. It is the second album in their ¡Alarma! Chronicles album cycle.

Danish author Søren Kierkegaard, Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, and Britons Malcolm Muggeridge and William Blake are all quoted in the liner notes of the album. DA also included a tribute to Blake with the ballad, "William Blake."

Søren Kierkegaard Danish philosopher and theologian, precursor of Existentialism

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. He was against literary critics who defined idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, and thought that Swedenborg, Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel and Hans Christian Andersen were all "understood" far too quickly by "scholars".

Czesław Miłosz Polish poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator. Nobel Prize winner

Czesław Miłosz was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the twentieth century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy, in its Nobel citation, described Miłosz as a writer who “voices man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts.”

Malcolm Muggeridge English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist

Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist and satirist. As a young man, Muggeridge was attracted to communism but after living in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, he became a forceful anti-communist. During the Second World War he worked for the British government as a soldier and a spy. In the aftermath of the war, as a hugely influential London journalist, he converted to Christianity and helped bring Mother Teresa to popular attention in the West. He was also a critic of the sexual revolution and drug use. He kept detailed diaries for much of his life; and wrote and published two volumes of an acclaimed autobiography Chronicles of Wasted Time.

"Dance Stop", a song condemning nuclear arms escalation, asked listeners to dance to the song and stop suddenly when the word "stop" is sung. Due to the fast, upbeat punk rock style of the song, it is nearly impossible to follow the song's musical directions. The song went on to become a popular concert favorite for DA fans in later years, with audience members doing their best to follow the rule.

Vox Humana was the third of a four-part series of albums by DA entitled The ¡Alarma! Chronicles , which also included the albums ¡Alarma! , Doppelgänger , and Fearful Symmetry . The band raised eyebrows on the tour that followed each release, by presenting a full multimedia event complete with video screens synchronized to the music, something that was unusual in the early 1980s for any band.

A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies followed by a satyr play, all by one author, to be played in one sitting at the Dionysia as part of a competition.

The ¡Alarma! Chronicles is the name of a short story written by Terry Scott Taylor.

<i>¡Alarma!</i> (album) 1981 studio album by Daniel Amos

¡Alarma! is the fourth studio album by Christian rock band Daniel Amos, issued on Newpax Records in April 1981. It is the first album in their ¡Alarma! Chronicles series and one of the earliest records in the Christian alternative rock genre.

Tour

Although when the album was recorded, D.A. only had four members, guitarist Greg Flesch joined in time for the 1984 Vox Humana Tour. Though keyboardist Rob Watson was part of the band when the album was made, he was unavailable for the photo session due to being on tour with Petra. Leo Sorentino, road manager for The Choir, appeared on the album cover in Watson's place (despite not particularly resembling him).

Greg Flesch is an American guitarist and musician, best known for his work with the rock bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies.

Robert D. Watson is a keyboard player, producer and composer best known for his work with the rock bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies. His filmography includes 22 titles.

Petra (band) Christian rock band from the United States

Petra is a music group regarded as a pioneer of the Christian rock and contemporary Christian music genres. Formed in 1972, the band took its name from the Greek word for "rock". Though it disbanded formally in 2006, incarnations have played reunion shows in the years since and released an album in November 2010. In 2013, it reformed with a new drummer, Cristian Borneo, and recorded a new song titled "Holy is Your Name", before going back on tour.

Reissue

In 2016, Stunt Records revisited the album as part of its ongoing deluxe reissue series re-issued the album as a two-CD and a three-panel digipak.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "Travelog" (Taylor)
  2. "(It's The Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs" (Taylor)
  3. "Home Permanent" (Taylor)
  4. "It's Sick" (Taylor)
  5. "William Blake" (Words and Music by Taylor, Arrangement by Taylor/Chandler)
  6. "Dance Stop" (Words and Music by Taylor, Arrangement by Taylor/Chandler)
Side two
  1. "Live And Let Live" (Taylor)
  2. "When Worlds Collide" (Taylor)
  3. "As The World Turns" (Taylor)
  4. "She's All Heart" (Taylor)
  5. "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (Taylor)
  6. "Sanctuary" (Taylor)

Deluxe edition bonus disc

  1. "I Can't Resist You" [bonus track]
  2. "The Man That Can't Be Mentioned" [`bonus track]
  3. "Do Anything For You" [bonus track]
  4. "Travelog" [acoustic mix]
  5. "(It's The Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs" [raw mix]
  6. "Home Permanent" [early mix]
  7. "It's Sick" [rhythm mix]
  8. "William Blake" [raw mix]
  9. "Dance Stop" [karaoke version]
  10. "Live And Let Live" [raw mix]
  11. "When Worlds Collide" [solo acoustic]
  12. "As The World Turns" [Doppelganger sessions demo]
  13. "As The World Turns" [raw mix]
  14. "She's All Heart" [raw mix]
  15. "The Incredible Shrinking Man" [acoustic mix]
  16. "Sanctuary" [Live at Flevo '85]
  17. "Sanctuary" [solo acoustic]

Personnel

Tim Chandler was an American bass guitar player, best known for his work with the rock bands Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and The Choir.

Ed McTaggart is an American drummer and artist. He is best known as the drummer of the rock band Daniel Amos.

Terry Scott Taylor American musician

Terry Scott Taylor is an American songwriter, record producer, writer and founding member of the bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies. Taylor is also a member of the roots and alternative music group, Lost Dogs. He is currently based in San Jose, California, U.S.

Production notes

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References

  1. ↑ Allender, Mark W.B.. Vox Humana at AllMusic
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